In my experience, samatha makes time feel shorter, while steady vipassanā, or insight practice, makes time feel longer. My students have reported similar changes. Many say, “As I get used to sitting meditation, time seems to pass more quickly.” Since around 2016, I have also experienced time expanding in everyday life: a day can feel like a week, and a month like a year.
Many studies have documented changes in meditators’ perception of time. Some report time feeling shorter or passing faster; others report time feeling longer or passing more slowly. A 2024 review examined 47 research articles on mindfulness and time perception. Such experiences deserve recognition rather than being dismissed as imagination.
Attention and memory offer a plausible explanation. In samatha, the mind settles on one object, such as the breath, and fewer distinct events may remain in memory, making the sitting feel short. In insight practice, we notice more changes in sensations, feelings, and thoughts. More events become apparent, and the same period can feel fuller and longer. This is how I understand my experience, and related explanations appear in the research.
The findings vary and do not establish a fixed rule separating samatha from vipassanā. They do, however, support recognizing these experiences as changes in time perception with plausible explanations. I hope this reassures practitioners who notice similar changes in their own lives.
Nancy Acord